Watching the battle between authorities and Hong Kong's excellent public transit system has been fascinating. They are now closing stations near the start of every planned protest an hour in advance. But there are *SO MANY* nearby stations that this profoundly disrupts service
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The stations are being closed under pressure from Beijing, on the pretext that the safety of passengers and staff is paramount. But I am not aware of any altercation between protesters and passengers or staff. The only people who have endangered riders are police firing tear gas
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Meanwhile, the station closings have a profound impact on residents of the city, who rely on the MTR and find themselves stranded without transport on a weekend. This in turn affects the retail economy. All of it will be blamed on the demonstrators, but is not their doing.
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Last night I had to walk for two hours to get outside a police cordon to a functioning MTR station, which was about to shut down. Buses were running empty as well. I was helped along by a group of older people going on foot to see a pop concert they had nonrefundable tickets to.
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The pattern here is the institutions of a great, global city being turned against its residents. First, it was the police. Then the flagship airline came under terrific pressure. Now it's the public transit system, in a decision that cannot help but further alienate residents.
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Two (incompossible) working theories I have: 1. The government is doing this to demonstrate to Beijing that it is taking severe measures, so there is no outside intervention. 2. The government is doing this to make the crisis look out of control, and ask for mainland help.
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Replying to @Pinboard
My assumption was that the Hong Kong government is being puppeteered by Beijing and ordered to take action
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We had the same dynamic in Poland, where I am from, but there is always a little distance between the puppet and the master. The dynamic there is interesting.
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